Ring in the New Year With Sparklers: Fire Dept Cracking Down on Illegal Fireworks

Despite the fact one celebrates your new calendar, and the other celebrates old glory, New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July are pretty similar events. The main difference is that the alcohol-to-fireworks ratio tips a bit more to fireworks on the Fourth, and favors booze on NYE.

Of course, all that champagne makes the possibility of general firework mishaps a bit more likely, so Miami-Dade fire rescue is running a three day crackdown on illegal fireworks in preparation for the midnight countdown.

According to The Herald, they'll be making a sweep of dozens of fireworks stands to make sure they're properly licensed and not carrying any illegal sky sparklers.

So there goes your backyard fireworks display! Probably for the best, considering a guy died last year in Miami after lighting a professional-grade firework.